A wide variety of magnetic holders are used to hold sheet-like, non-metallic objects such as photographs and paper sheets to a magnetic surface, such as a refrigerator door, file cabinet door, clip board or the like. Consumers will often purchase such magnets because of their decorative properties, and a large industry has arisen to create and market such magnetic devices.
For example, products sold by Clay Critters, Inc. of West Lafayette, Ind. include a variety of animal and whimsical-shaped magnets. The CLAY CRITTERS magnets typically have a body portion formed of ceramic that includes a three dimensionally shaped upper surface and a generally planar rear surface. A magnet is fixedly attached to the planar back surface of the body portion, thus enabling the device to “stick” onto a magnetically attractive surface, such as a refrigerator door. See the CLAY CRITTERS catalog or www.claycritters.com.
Other decorative holders can be found at, for example, www.fridgedoor.com. The fridgedoor.com magnets are constructed differently than those sold by CLAY CRITTERS. It appears that the fridgedoor.com magnets are sheet-like magnets having both a planar upper surface and a planar lower surface. Magnets of this type can be made from a flexible plastic having a magnetic material applied to the lower surfaces thereof. The magnets sold by fridgedoor.com have a wide variety of different available pictures shown on the front, such as pictures of celebrities, and cartoon characters such as Betty Boop. See the printout from www.fridgedoor.com web site.
In addition to magnets of this type being used for decorative purposes, they are also used by businesses as advertising vehicles. Businesses will often purchase decorative magnetic holders such as those shown at www.refrigeratormagnets.com, a subsidiary of the Art Works. Magnetic holders of this type are constructed generally similarly to the decorative magnets shown at www.frigedoor.com. However, rather than having a celebrity picture or art piece printed on the fronts, these business promotional magnetic holders usually have information about the particular business that purchases the magnets. For example, a pizza parlor may purchase such a magnet, and have the name of the pizza parlor, its hours of operation and its phone number printed on the face of the magnet.
Magnetic holders of this type are either sold or given away free by a business to its customers, in the hope that the customers will place the holder on their refrigerator or file cabinet. By placing the magnetic holders on the refrigerator with the businesses name contained thereon, the customers are reminded of the existence of the business. In the example given above for the pizza parlor, it is the hope that the customer, when next ordering pizza, will call the particular pizza parlor that produced the holder, because the customer has been reminded of the particular pizza parlor's existence every time that he looks at the refrigerator, and has easy access to the pizza parlor's name and phone number by virtue of the name and phone number being printed on the face (upper surface) of the magnetic holder.
Magnetic holders such as those described above are often used to hold non-magnetic sheets upon a magnetically attractive surface, such as the refrigerator door. In the kitchens of many homes, especially those homes whose owners have children or grandchildren, one will often see a large number of magnetic holders attached onto the door of the refrigerator. The magnetic holders are often used to hold sheet-like objects, such as children's pictures, children's school papers, pictures colored by children, phone lists, grocery lists, and the like for display on the refrigerator.
Another type of refrigerator magnet is shown at Olson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,363. The Olson device shows a refrigerator magnet having a bi-planar bottom surface that includes a first bottom planar magnetic surface, and a second bottom planar magnetic surface. The bottom magnetic surfaces are joined together along the common bend line that defines an obtuse angle. In one embodiment, one of the magnetic surfaces is in contact with the metallic surface (e.g. refrigerator door) leaving one or more paper receiving gaps between the other magnetic surface and the refrigerator door. The bend line functions as a fulcrum whereby the body may be flipped by the application of finger pressure to lift the first magnetic surface from the metallic surface, and cause one of the other magnetic surfaces to clamp the paper and hold it magnetically against the metallic surface. The magnetic attraction between the body along the bend lines and the magnetic surface is said to hold the body in place while being flipped from one position to the other.
Examples of other types of magnetic holders are shown at Irie, U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,321; Woods, U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,278; Andonian, U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,778; and Wheatley, U.S. Pat. No. 2,693,370. Additionally, Clekus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,445 discloses a mounting and locating device for a breakaway tool holder that uses a magnetic holding device.
A further example of a magnetic holder is shown in Sadeh et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0023420 which was published on Feb. 3, 2005. Two identical magnetic rocker apparatuses are placed in proximity to one another so that a magnetic bond between the two rocker apparatuses forms a two-piece magnetic holder.
Although the devices discussed above most likely perform their intended functions in a workmanlike manner, room for improvement exists.
In particular, room for improvement exists in providing a device that provides a means for more securely gripping onto a paper piece or photograph better than some of the known prior art devices. Additionally, room for improvement exists in providing such a device that is simple, and inexpensive to manufacture, to enable the device to be manufactured and priced at a point where it will be an attractive promotional product for businesses, and an attractive decorative product for consumers.
One object of the present invention is to provide such a device.